Book clubs making a come-back at breweries

When you read, do you reach for the new hardcover or the iPad?

Times are changing, and so are ways of finding readers. Just picture a book club and who might be sitting in the circle...

A book club is an old idea but the Toledo Lucas County Public Library is trying to reach a younger reader, with creative ways to get you inside. And this book club, called Books on Tap, is held at a bar.

"You can have conversation over a beer and you can have conversation over a book," librarian Franco Vitella said. "So it's just combining the two and they're natural fits."

Librarians like Vitella realized that not everyone was into the traditional book club model.

"They always seem kind of stodgy," Melanie Rantenen said.

Other readers couldn't make the mid-morning meetings... but this evening book club is different.

"Part of it is appealing to working crowds," Vitella said.

…And people like young mom Melanie Rantenen.

"I like the beer, I like the crowd that's here and we had a great discussion about the book," Rantenen said.

Vitella says the Books on Tap trend is turning the page across the country.

"Meet people in different places that maybe the library wasn't getting at previously," Vitella said.

With other book clubs focusing on teens, or baseball, or graphic novels, it seems pints with pages is a hit.

"Try out a new place, try some beer, and read a new book," Rantenen said.

Books on Tap is just the first volume. There's another chapter in Downtown Toledo at a brewery, and another about to open up in Sylvania, at Inside the Five.

This was Melanie’s visit to Earnest Brew Works. In an age of choice and short attention spans, breweries are also adapting to make sure people like Melanie come back.

"We have picked up quite a few regular customers because they were introduced to this place because of an event," Earnest Brew Works co-owner and brewer Scot Yarnell said.

This month’s read is full of fears and cheers!